Design and Validation of Pipeline Inspection Robot based on Panoramic Vision

Pipeline-type workpieces are prevalent in industrial production. However, manually inspecting the inner walls is an inefficient quality control activity that may pose safety risks to inspection personnel, especially for specialized workpieces with internal ramps. The complex internal structure further increases the difficulty of manual inspection. Therefore, designing a robot capable of navigating inside tube-shaped workpieces and stitching images of the inner walls into a single composite image is crucial for improving the efficiency of quality control processes for such workpieces. To meet this demand, we have designed a robot as an experimental platform capable of traveling and climbing ramps within pipes. The robot can handle a maximum climbing angle of 30 degrees and is equipped with four 180-degree wide-angle cameras arranged at 90-degree intervals, facilitating the capture of images around the pipe. Addressing the challenge of narrow environments inside pipes where conventional stitching algorithms may not be effectively applied, we have designed a stitching method capable of seamlessly stitching larger disparity images in narrow pipe environments. This algorithm optimizes the processes of feature point matching and optimal seam line selection, achieving higher-quality image stitching from the four cameras. The robot we designed will significantly enhance the efficiency of inspecting the inner walls of tube-shaped workpieces, particularly those with ramps.